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This blog is about gaming, but D&D is top on my list, from D&D 5e, Pathfinder to good old AD&D 1e (where my roots come from!). I'm an Evil DM, I have been for many years, to the point folks enjoy my games and style but fear things in game. Paranoia is great and fuels a lot of awesome roleplaying situations with characters in game. Have a question? Feel free to contact me for advice about 1e, 5e or Pathfinder - ASKTHEDM(@)THEEVILDM(.)COM

Some people have been asking how I plan an encounter, however big the encounter may be for the game, I use the following square (see above) with colors. The colors is what I normally use in OneNote. I have this as a template in one tab and I keep copying and pasting it into various adventures as I write them for my DM notes.

Check out the great savings for only $10 at Open Gaming Store as its a steal, not only do you get the core rules, but you get all our additional classes, the undead guide, and two adventures! What a steal?!

Press Release from Moebius Website:
Sometimes you’ll run into a character on the street, get some juicy
tidbit of information, and be on your way, only to realize later that
you were had. That might be the Charlatan.
He’s a bit of a con artist, spinning rumor, magical talent, and roguish
charm into whatever he needs at the time. Maybe his heart truly was in
the right place and he led you where you needed to be. Or maybe he had
you chasing your tail to help in his fiendish scheme.

Greetings, gamers!
It's that time of year again when you scramble to find presents for all your gaming friends. Well, now's the time to grab the whole kit of Mazes & Perils products in time for the holidays!

Through the end of the year, you can grab every Mazes & Perils product for a huge discount. How big? Well, how about less than $10 for everything we've released so far? That's 60% off the cover price!
That's right - for the entire month of December we're giving you everything you need to kick off an epic campaign of OSR goodness. The main M&P book, two adventures, two extra classes, and a book full of undead critters to keep things interesting! Grab it here!
Thanks for being a fan of Moebius Adventures games and we wish you all the best for the holidays!
--Fitz

Sometimes when you are running a game, the players throw you for a loop, or turn left when you totally thought they would turn right. IT HAPPENS. There is no way to determine where the group will go... sure you could have a good idea how they'd react, but you'd never know all the time.

Further diving into the whole, space pulp thing for use with Mazes and Perils, I've designed up this evil world dominating creature, Alkmanian.
Evil to the core, all they care about is themselves and will enslave the Venusians, the Fearians and Earthlings to do their bidding.

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on and the wonderful editing +Brian Fitzpatrick has been doing with the material I have given him! Big kudos to him for putting it together that looks awesome!

The class overview: In a world of plenty, there is a ton of refuse. Trash, faith dregs, and oddments litter the streets, flow
downstream, and fill the dark wet nooks and crannies
we'd rather choose to forget. For some, however, those
spaces are their homes.

Today I was talking to a few people on G+ and we were talking about running a superhero game at the next North Texas RPGCON, DC Heroes instantly came to mind when I thought about it. I mean, I grew up playing the heck out of the game! I loved it to pieces!
Then we got into speaking about what comics might I be inspired by to use while running the game and I said I wasn't sure, I read so many.
Mostly DC as you can see.
- Evil out!

While I wasn't able to spend upwards of thousands of dollars (yes some folks did during the auctions to get amazing ORIGINAL pieces of art) I did spend a little and grab a few books including winning a silent auction for the Scarred Lands (sealed) gazetteer. Hey its awesome for grabbing ideas for my games!
But I had a great time gaming and podcasting with +Erik Tenkar! Special thanks goes out to DM +Glen Hallstrom for allowing me a spot in his Gangbusters game. I never got to play the game as a kid (I owned it) and finally I was able to play in a quality game. I look forward to a new edition of the game coming out!

As you can see by the picture above, in less then 12 hours M&Pde has hit #1 on RPGNOW's hottest titles today! Thanks to all the folks who decided to take a look at the book! Let's keep it going as the sale goes on all weekend long! So if you are still on the fence about it, why not pick it up, its only a $1. After Sunday it goes back to its normal price of $7.99!

I found this article thrilling, as I am an author that has written a clone game, called Mazes & Perils, which will for sale starting tomorrow on RPGNOW.com for only $1 for the opening weekend.
The argument has been thrown around a lot in the gaming community that clones are not legal, and some argue back saying you can't copy right "system mechanics".
Well, the argument is basically settled in my opinion, as now we have a court case ruling in favor of the clone writers, saying there is no protection under US copyright law! Here's a direct quote from the article: "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work."
If you are interested in reading the backstory on this case and what happened, I've included the link below for you re…

"All who travel the forest fear well the cottage of Halia
Whitethorn, a sinister witch who spends her days mixing strange and
powerful potions in her workshop. Her tinctures are renowned for their
arcane properties, but any adventurer seeking her wares is sure to first
find a great deal of danger...Witch's
Cottage is a 5e one-shot dungeon by Jesse Gazic, written for 1st-level
adventurers. The dungeon includes full stat blocks for all encounters
and original maps. Jesse can be reached at jessegazic.com or on Twitter. "
(You can travel here to download it free or donate a small amount if you'd like.)

This adventure (well I want to call it a side quest, because I can see my group blowing through this 7 room adventure in like an hour or less) is awesome and highly recommended to pick up.
The first 3 pages is packed with description of each of the rooms along with how to incorporate this into your game.
The descriptions are enough if you want add a thing or two he…

I finally got a chance to view the new Ghostbusters preview the other day and I absolutely hate it. No it has nothing to do with the cast, which happens to be all women. I could care less about that part, in fact the casting is a really good mix. Why don't I like it?
It doesn't feel like the Ghostbusters I've grown up with and watched, over and over and over since the '80s.
If feels like a cheap knock off, kind of like when they had that Ghostbusters animated cartoon with talking ape and weird people..

Then the real cartoon came out and they had to use the title, "The REAL" before it so no one would mistake it for that utter piece of trash going around using its name.

Yeah, it's like that.
According Breitbart news:
"..The official Ghostbusters 2016 trailer has 815,000 dislikes and just 239,000 likes.."
Here's the official trailer for the movie:

Its packed with bad effects and a bad story with cheap jokes that aren't even funny. Grant…

I'll be attending North Texas RPG Con this year in June (3rd to 5th) to play in the usual games and of course do some live podcasts for Roll For Initiative along with some for the Path of Legends Podcast. I will be sitting along side +Erik Tenkar my co-host for Path of Legends for a show and then be joined by +Glen Hallstrom of Thaco's Hammer for another.

A pale, solitary skeletal being which always wears a brown, hooded
robe, the crypt thing stays in its lair permanently (at least, none have
been encountered elsewhere) and will not attack if it is left
undisturbed.

I was looking around on the web for better character sheets and these images came up in the google browser. I am not sure who did these and I take no credit for them, but its a really detailed explanation & break down of how to fill out a character sheet for 5e. I know sometimes its not easy filling out these sheets and this break down really helps with each spot on there, especially if you are brand new to the game.

I've joined forces with the TSR Podcast Network, (http://TSRPN.com) to bring you the Path of Legends Podcast! This podcast is focusing on Dungeons and Dragons 5E, but with small twist to it, we will show you how to make it more deadly and have that old school feel to it.

Each episode, myself, +Erik Tenkar and +Sal Valente will dive into ways on how to make D&D 5e feel like AD&D 1e. You can look forward to seeing custom creatures, spells and other things as we explore how to play. You can find us on iTunes or go directly to our website http://pathoflegends.tsrpn.com/ Contact us via email pathoflegendspodcast@gmail.com Call our voicemail line - 702-744-PATH (7284)

This weekend, I was able to sit down with two awesome guests, +Erik Tenkar and +Timothy Brannan to record yet another episode of the Roll for Initiative podcast. This week's show I decided to mix it up a bit with a small format change just for this show. We talked about a few (hot button) topics we constantly see around the community.

I do feel the show had that "newsy" and "the best damn sports show period!" feel to it as we chatted about the topics at hand. The show is set to drop live this Wednesday, of course if you are a Patreon supporter, you'll have already heard this show, much like every show, early. Topics we talked about: Dungeon Mastering?- Is charging for seats in a local game (none conventions) fair or just greedy?- charging to teach newbies how to play and be a DM?

Patreon/Kickstarters?- playing a simple AD during a podcast is enough, but asking and throwing in plugs more then once is that over doing it?- Are Kickstarters hurting the hobby or he…

The Face Mask of HorrorBy The Evil GM, Pulled from his Notebooks of Doom!

This mask is made up from strips of burnt flesh, sewn together by silver strains of wire. The flesh appears to feel and look as if its still alive and squirming around.

When worn, this mask will put the fear of their god into them, as they must make a save vs fear with a heavy minus to stand their ground. The mask's magical properties, allows the view to see their worst nightmares each time they look at it. To stop the visions and fear, they must make a save each combat round, run or knock the mask off the face of the wearer. Knocking off the mask requires that a successful saving throw is made and then a called hit has to be made. The Longer the character wears the mask, the closer he slowly becomes insane and keeps the mask on all the time. The first time worn, it will work with no side effects and seem grand! After the 4th use, the Dungeon Master will have to make a secret saving throw vs spells for the chara…

Ring of Sinking Depression by the Evil GM, pulled from his notebooks of doom! Price:3,000 gp Type: Ring Weight - Description: This ring is simple in appearance, plain silver with small skull in front. It is easily identified by any level Magic User as a ring that will add a bonus to the wearer's prime stat. When the user puts the ring on, they will feel no change, but when their mood changes (for the worse) the ring's powers will kick in, granting them its magical bonus (see chart below). Simply, the more depressed and sad the character acts and portrays as a true emotion, the higher the bonus. The twist of this ring, is the longer the character uses the power of the ring the harder it becomes for the character to come out of their state. This factor would not be identifiable by a Magic User at all. A character that portrays and stays in the despair state for more then a few days, risks the chance of developing an insanity from the Dungeon Master's Guide... DM's Choice, Of Cours…

This looks and appears to be a ring of healing granting the user the ability to heal himself 3 to 5 times a day, healing anywhere from 4 points to 24 points in a shot.

This item when identified will appear to be a ring of healing with the properties listed above, unless detected by a high level Magic User (15 and up). The real fun begins when the character puts the ring on, the ring reveals its TRUE self. The ring will work in stages as it slowly turns the character into an undead zombie.

Stage 1 - The character notices is that it will not come off at all and that he now has the ability to inflict wounds on others, instead of heal (as stated above, just inflict now).

Stage 2 - (after second usage of inflict) The character will notice he will gain healing from the infliction of wounds of equal value, if the character needs no healing, nothing will happen. The characters skin will slowly turn a pale color, and co…

In my quest to find the "next interesting game" for me, I started with Dungeon World, and I was excited about it. Then I really got into it, and I didn't like it, I didn't like it at all. I was very disappointed as I tried out the system and it fell flat for me and quickly lost my interest in the game, even though it had a huge community behind. In comes, Shadow of the Demon Lord!

I was kind of iffy on the whole game, because I had not heard a lot about it and only saw it had a successful crowdfunding that went well over the requested money needed. On RPGNOW, the game is quoted as: The End Is Just the BeginningSometimes the world needs heroes. But in the desperation of these last days, the world will take all those it can get: heroes, blackguards, madmen, and whoever else is willing to stand against the coming darkness. Will you fight the demons or will you burn it all down and dance among the ashes? Who will you become when the world dies?Shadow of the Demon Lord® opens…

So over the weekend, after talking a few people at my local gaming shop, I picked up Dungeon World. I haven't had a real change to play it or even read it, but after watching the folks play it, the game look really smooth and cool as hell. Sadly the group has no room for me, as they are already 6 players and a GM. While I was sad, I was glad to see a Game Master whom knew his limits for a game, rather then say, "Oh just join us, and we can have fun." He explained as he took down my number that he was very sorry, but he would contact me when someone dropped out and that he cared about the amount of time each player got at the table and how much time he could hold things together to keep it entertaining. I can respect that, a lot. So with a farewell and leaving the gaming store, he gave me a few links to purchase the game pdf and also to start reading up on it. RPGNOW had the book, so that was easy to remember and it was also easy to remember the SRD site, which I thought was …

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What's this Blog about?Nothing is as it seems in my games, so feel free to show up in my game with your books and TRY to rules lawyer me, it will only result in another character soul taken. Remember you are the Dungeon Master and ANYTHING can be done as long as you can dream it up because you rule the game, not the other way around! IF the book doesn't list it, doesn't mean its not possible, think folks, you are the DM, do as you please, its your world! Over 1000+ character souls taken as of this date!